1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to mobile communications and, in particular, to a method and apparatus for providing non-voice data to a mobile device that minimizes call setup/teardown overhead.
2. Background Description
Mobile devices such as cell phones have the ability to allow the user to request and view information such as e-mail, stock quotes, weather, news, and so forth (hereinafter also referred to as “non-voice data”). The phone call (typically implemented through a cellular network) to request and download this information is typically very short in duration (on the order of just a few seconds). Nonetheless, the overhead for setting up and tearing down such a call is very high. In addition, service providers typically bill in one minute increments, so 25 one-second calls are actually billed as 25 minutes worth of airtime.
Accordingly, it would be desirable and highly advantageous to have a method and apparatus for providing non-voice data to a mobile device that minimizes call setup/teardown overhead.